What You Need to Know About 802.11ac

The appetite for wireless bandwidth is seemingly insatiable. Fifteen years ago, the first standard wireless LANs emerged at 1 Mbps and 2 Mbps to serve niche applications such as warehouse picking, inventory scanning and, in office buildings where mobility wasn't a requirement, cordless PC connections aimed at lowering cabling costs. Fast forward through several WLAN generations to today, and the story has completely changed. Fifth-generation WLANs are now nearing standardization, and they are poised to run at 1 Gbps speeds and beyond to serve any number of mission-critical applications across all industries. Instead of wireless connectivity being reserved for specialized applications or occasional connections in conference rooms, most knowledge workers today use the WLAN as their primary access network, and mobility has become primary requirement.